The invention relates to a container, and more specifically, to a container combined with means to facilitate visual exposure of the contents of the container and advertising material thereon.
The invention is directed to the supplying of shoes in boxes and the like wherein a tag is hanging from the box for displaying advertisements that emphasize the importance of the contents of the box.
When a manager of a department s tore wants to advertise a product, such as shoes, there are several routs that the manager can take. For example, the manager may advertise internally or externally. An external advertisement includes, for example, those found in a newspaper or other periodical, or that on commercial television, cable, radio or Internet source. An internal option includes a large, generally directed sign which may comprise at least one flashing light. An internal advertisement may also consist of a circular which a customer attains upon entering the department store. A circular, for example, generally contains information on store sales as well as coupons for specific items.
The external advertisements bring the customer into the retail store and the internal techniques may grab the attention of the customer who has entered the store for reasons unrelated to any sale. However, store managers would find that each of the mentioned external advertising efforts have problems with respect to the actual impact on sales of a targeted product. Similar problems exist when the manager bombards the customer with an array of internal advertisements. Especially in a large department store, not one of the mentioned efforts assures the manager that the customer will look for or find the product.
One reason for the failure of current advertisements is that in a large department store, the manager is forced to display similar types of goods in similar locations. The manager may have targeted a particular good in an advertisement or a sign, which may bring the customer to a row of similar goods. The customer may walk toward a specific product in this row of similar goods, and lose focus as to which of the goods was the targeted item. In a row of shoes, for example, an adjacent grouping of shoes may blend together such that the customer loses the ability to hone in on an advertised pair of shoes. This problem may occur regardless of how many advertisements a manager utilizes in an effort to sell a pair of a particular brand of shoes.
Managers and marketing personnel have sought to overcome the mentioned problems with the current art in different ways. For example, a manager may place an individual style of shoe in a location which is separated from the rest of the shoe selections, and include a large advertisement emphasizing the importance of the sale of the particular product. A manager may also place individual signs and tags on each shoe, perhaps including red dots or other implements which attempt to indicate the sale.
The solution of individually locating the targeted shoes has an inherent problem. Space is limited in any store, so that selectively advertising many goods in this fashion is usually prohibited. For example, if there are dozens of shoes in a crowded department store""s shoe department or a speciality shoe store and a manager wishes to distinguish a group of shoes, selectively placing shoes, which are xe2x80x9con salexe2x80x9d in a temporary area to distinguish them from others, may not be feasible.
The solution of individual signs and tags also has problems when considering the influence on customers and the impact on sales. Most individual signs and tags are not effective because they are not placed directly in the line of sight of a customer walking down the row of goods. Even tags that are placed directly in the line of sight of the customer usually fail to grab the attention of the customer. These tags are not sufficiently interesting to cause the customer to notice them and thus induce the customer to examine the goods.
To address the problems in the art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a box which is designed such that a maximum amount of the product stored within the box is visible to a customer when viewed from the front of the box, while the lid of the box is not in place.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an implement, such as a hanging tag, for locating an individual advertisement directly in the line of sight of the customers. It is a further object of the present invention to make this implement attractive to customers walking past the advertised goods. Further, this implement may be reusable in that it remains with the box of goods.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide this implement in a form which saves storage space, as it is permanently and easily stored within the box of the advertised goods. This easy storage further provides the advantage that the implement does not interfere with the advertisement of other goods during selected periods of time, such as when the goods associated with the particular implement are not on sale.
According to an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the foregoing objects are achieved with a slant container for storing and advertising an article of clothing, e.g., shoes, comprising a top half and a bottom half. The top half has a rectangular top surface and two depending side panels and two depending end panels. The bottom half has a bottom surface and two upwardly projecting side panels and two end panels. A front end panel of the bottom is smaller in height than the back end panel, and the bottom side panels slope downwardly from the back end panel to the front end panel. The top half has a larger front panel and a smaller back panel. The side panels of the top have slopes from the back to the front so that when the top half is selectively laid over the bottom half, the depending panels of the top half enclose the corresponding projecting panels of the bottom half, and the resulting container forms a rectangular parallelepiped. However, when the top half is rotated 180xc2x0 and stored under the bottom half, the bottom edges of the depending panels of the top half approximately meet the top the edges of the projecting panels of the bottom half. Further, in the orientation with the top under the bottom, the sloping shape allows the contents of the container to be easily viewed, e.g., from a store isle, because the front panel has a reduced height.
The container may further include a tag with a large surface extending in two dimensions and an elongated surface attached to one side of the large surface, e.g., perpendicular thereto. The elongated surface is attached to the bottom half of the container via a pivot. The elongated surface is dimensioned so that when the large surface is selectively pivoted to the maximum outward rotational distance, the large surface is suspended outside of the bottom half. The large surface is dimensioned so that the two dimensional face is large enough for an individual advertisement to be selectively placed on the face and small enough so that when the large surface is selectively pivoted to the maximum inward rotational distance, the large surface fits within the container.
The large surface of the tag has mounted thereon at least one LED which protrudes from at least one side of the large surface. The LED is large enough and emits a light intensity bright enough to allow for visual perception from a substantial distance from the tag. The LED is small enough to not interfere with the advertisement placed on the tag. The container further comprises an integrated circuit to power the LED. The integrated circuit and a power source, may be retained in a cube from which wires extend and pass into the tag to the LED. The related casing is stored on the inside panel of the bottom half.
The embodiment of the invention, as described, provides for a container which, due to its slanted sides, allows for a maximum allowable viewing of stored goods. The lighted tag when pivoted out of the open container attracts customers so that they may read advertisements placed on the tag. This assures that customers will notice the products within the container. The pivot attachment on the tag allows the tag to be selectively and efficiently stored and used.